"When I accepted the leadership role in ANSA-EAP and started to reflect on the work and responsibilities awaiting me, I was confronted once more with the question of our regional mandate. If the organization is to truly serve its purpose, which will, of course, define and determine its sustainability, it has to offer something that could be regionally shared and communicated, understood and applied."by Dondon Parafina
I call it a new adventure! Taking on the Executive Director’s post for a regional organization covering East Asia and Pacific is, to say the least, challenging because to me, the region remains an unfamiliar terrain.
I am not new to ANSA East Asia-Pacific. I was the Network Coordinator for four years, right at the time when we were establishing partnerships in the four countries we prioritized in the initial project phase—Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, and the Philippines. In many forums and conversations we had, I would always hear myself and others remark that the countries in the region are too varied—in language, political structure and dynamics, economic status, religion, historical influences, and perhaps even in their favorite sports! And note here that I only had East Asia in mind. It gets even more complex when the Pacific becomes part of the picture.
